Challenge
The West Bench neighborhood in Boise, ID, featured one of the area’s largest employers, but it did not have a low-stress bikeway connecting to the employment center. The surrounding neighborhoods featured a number of busy roads without bike lanes, which also left residents without a connection from their homes to nearby grocery stores, businesses, or the biking network into downtown Boise.
Solution
Kittelson worked with the Ada County Highway District (ACHD) and the City of Boise to create a plan for the area’s first neighborhood bikeway. The low-stress bikeway would use a combination of local roads, unopened public right-of-way, and park trails that would connect the employment center to its surrounding neighborhoods, as well as create a continuous bikeway connection between it and downtown Boise.
The Outcome
Lower Stress, Better Biking in Boise
The resulting final plan has been implemented and opened to the public. It includes wayfinding and markings along local streets; walking and biking paths through previously unused public right-of-way; and enhanced crossings of busy streets to create a continuous low-stress connection between the employment center, the surrounding neighborhoods, and an east-west bike route that connects to downtown Boise.
